The American Minute: ‘There she blows!’ cried the lookout, sighting Moby Dick – Herman Melville

“There she blows!” cried the lookout, sighting Moby Dick.Captain Ahab, driven by revenge, sailed the seas to capture this great white whale, who had bitten off his leg in a previous encounter.

The crew of the ship Pequod included Quaker chief mate Starbuck, second mate Stubb, Captain Boomer, a tattooed Polynesian harpooner named Queequeg, and Ishmael, the teller of the tale.

Ahab finally caught up with Moby Dick in the Pacific Ocean.

As fate would have it, when the harpoon struck Moby Dick, the rope flew out so fast it entangled Ahab, pulling him under.

This classic was written by Herman Melville, born AUGUST 1, 1819.

The grandson of a Boston Tea Party ‘Indian’, Herman Melville was 12 years old when his father died.

Raised by a mother who inspired his imagination with biblical stories, Herman Melville shipped out as a cabin boy on a whaling ship.

Get the book, American Minute-Notable Events of American Significance Remembered on the Date They Occured

He later sailed the South Seas as a young sailor with the U.S. Navy.

In the Marquesas Islands, Herman Melville fell among the Typee cannibals.

After his rescue, he wrote in an account:

“These disclosures will…lead to…ultimate benefit to the cause of Christianity in the Sandwich Islands.”

In his classic novel, Moby Dick, Herman Melville wrote:

“With this sin of disobedience…Jonah flouts at God…

He thinks that a ship made by men will carry him into countries where God does not reign.”

In 1983, The U.S. District Court stated in Crockett v. Sorenson:

“Better known works which rely on allusions from the Bible include Milton’s Paradise Lost…Shakespeare…and Melville’s Moby Dick…

Secular education…demands that the student have a good knowledge of the Bible.”